Hump Day!

Hey everyone!

   This week was pretty great! Not a whole lot of visible success came until around Thursday when we had a lesson with a less-active/recent convert that went really well. We texted him the day before and he said we could meet so we stopped by and had a lesson about baptism with him. When we got there he was watching the churches Bible videos and told us that he needed to go back to church. He said that he wants to feel changed like he did at the time of his baptism and wants to work towards that. Right now we are working with him to get Sunday's off of work and to start reading the Book of Mormon daily. Pretty cool experience that strengthened my testimony that the Lord is always working with people.

   I went on an exchange with Elder Reyes this Friday and it went really well. I learned a lot about laying everything on the table and letting God do what he needs to do to help me grow. The exchange was on my year mark and I don't think that was a coincidence. I've learned a lot in a year and have become a completely different person, but if I want to continue to grow and change I need to step up my game and the exchange taught me a couple of important things that hopefully will help me to progress faster and learn more in my last year than the first.

   We found a really solid potential investigator on Saturday. Her name is Michelle. We were riding our bikes and stopped to ask her where a street was, we already knew where the street was but Elder Atkinson felt inspired to start off with that so good for him for listening because it worked. We got talking and it turns out her family just recently started feeling like they needed to find a church. They both have religious backgrounds but have been out of it for a while and don't agree with everything their past churches taught. We shared Alma 7:11-12 with her because of some health issues that are occurring within the family and afterwards she asked if she could keep the Book of Mormon and of course we said yes. We offered to come and share what makes our church special and she was more than happy to agree. We have an appointment with them on Thursday and are in the process of making a plan to get them into a members home. Very exciting! The Lord is always preparing people. 

   Now for some not necessarily funny but funny to me stories. On Wednesday we did something called a District Blitz. It's where we all go to one area in the district and work the heck out of it for a couple of hours. Elder Barnes got put with Elder Atkinson and I and we had some creative ideas to do some finding. The main big one we did was chalk art. We picked a very central busy location in a park and drew a huge plan of salvation. As we were drawing it we would talk to people and have them guess what it was and discuss it with them, it was really productive so we decided to go somewhere else and draw another picture. As we were walking away a police officer drove by on his four wheeler and asked us if we knew who drew the picture. Of course we said that we did and it turns out he wasn't too happy about it. Apparently its considered tagging and we almost got in some serious trouble. Luckily he knew some members of the church over his life time which softened his heart towards us so he let us off easy. It was pretty terrifying at first. I thought I was going to jail!

   The other night we were riding our bikes doing stop by's. It was 8:30 and we stopped by a ladies house. It had a no soliciting sign on the door. Next thing we know this guy opens the door and starts screaming at us for not being able to read the sign on the door, which we did read. The funny part was that he closed his door and then opened it right back up and started screaming at us again and we just kept walking away. We probably woke him up but hey, the truth doesn't care if you're asleep. You need it!

   One last thing. I'm sure most of you were anticipating me bringing this up but I just want to say how fantastic Pokemon Go is. Not because I can play it, because I can't, but because of how fantastic of a missionary tool it is. Practically every other person we see out walking is playing it and it is a fantastic conversation starter, especially for me. We haven't gotten an investigator from it yet but I'm sure we will at some point. 

   Alright. That should be all for this week. The Lord is hastening His work each and every day regardless of whether we are helping or not. I want to be a part of it and am excited to be able to be His servant here in Illinois. 

Have a great week!

• Elder Eddenfield

Choose the Right